I'm still a beginner. I can beat the average person who doesn't play chess much but not anyone with any amount of skill. I'm trying to learn and i really like " The idiot's guide to chess ". Problem is as i try to find more books i'm running into books with ALOT of notation. My question is how do you get used to this? Do you memorize the board and then you can sift through and understand it quickly or do you have to literally have a chess board in front of you while you read and continually refernce it as you read pages of long notation. Is there a trick to this or is it really as arduous as it seems?

If you’re referring to a book with a bunch of annotated games – having a chessboard will help in visualizing opening variations/examining all feasible lines listed in that book.

If it’s a puzzle book – with mating patterns/tactical positions, then it’s just a matter of time before you get use to it – as it is quite impractical to set up a board with every single puzzle in that book (unless the puzzle/s is/are worth looking into).

If it’s an opening encyclopedia  (MCO/NCO) or an endgame reference, using a ChessBase with a mere click on the mouse is handy.